Renicker

Origins and meaning

The name is German. There are two plausible roots: an old Germanic given name built on ragin ("counsel"), or a place name such as Reineck or Rieneck. The family's older spellings point toward the place names.

Renicker

The Dictionary of American Family Names (2nd ed., Patrick Hanks, Oxford University Press, 2022) classes Renicker as German. It gives two roots: a variant of Reiniker, a short form of a Germanic personal name built on ragin, or a variant of Reninger. (Geneanet)

The older spellings

The same dictionary treats Reinecker as a name for someone from one of several places called Reineck or Rheineck. It reads Renneker as a name for someone from Rieneck in Franconia, a town once written Reinekke and Renegge, and calls Renaker an Americanized Renneker. (Reineck · Renneker)

It describes Renninger as a name for someone from Renningen in Württemberg, also found in Alsace and Lorraine and concentrated in Pennsylvania. (Geneanet)

Not the same as Renick

Renick and Rennick look close, but they are mostly Scottish or English, variants of Renwick. The dictionary notes Rennick can also be an altered form of a German name related to Reinecke. (Geneanet)

Some surname sites give Renicker a confident origin story, such as a place called "Renica" in Bavaria or Saxony, with no source. It doesn't match the dictionary, so it's left off here. (NameCensus)

Spelling variants

Clerks wrote the name by ear, so one family shows up under more than a dozen spellings. Jefferson's 1776 account book spells the Hanover innkeeper "Rhenegher." In one family of brothers born 1773 to 1792, the sons ended up as Rennecker, Renaker, Reniker, Renicker and Renneker.

Shaded spellings are still US surnames today.

• Renicker
• Reniker
• Renaker
• Rennicker
• Reinecker
• Reineker
• Reiniker
• Reinacker
• Reinaker
• Rennecker
• Renneker
• Renecher
• Rinecker
• Rienecker
• Runecker
• Ranecher
• Reneger
• Rhenegher

Ohio records sometimes mix up Renicker and Renick. One Tuscarawas County man is Renick on his death certificate and Renicker or Rennicker elsewhere. (Ohio Gravestone Photo Project)

Not everyone with these spellings is related; Reinecker in particular has separate German origins. For record searches, Forebears also suggests Reinicker, Renecker and Rinicker.

Where Renickers live

About 350 people carry the name worldwide. Nearly all of them live in the United States, and about half live in Ohio.

By state today

Share of US Renickers, from Forebears. MyNameStats also ranks Ohio first. Outside the US, Forebears finds about 4 in Canada and 2 in Brazil.

Early families and settlement

The best-documented line is a German family from Baden. By the mid-1700s they had settled around Hanover, Pennsylvania and Silver Run, Maryland, and by the 1810s their grandsons had carried the Renicker spelling to Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Whether every Renicker descends from this family is unproven, but no competing line has turned up.

1. 1733

   Caspar Reinecker (also Reinacker) is born in Germany.

   SAR
2. 1745

   Paulus (Paul), believed to be Caspar's younger brother, is born in Baden.

   Find a Grave
3. 1751

   Caspar marries Anna Maria Carle in York County, Pennsylvania.

   SAR
4. 1764

   Caspar opens the Sign of the Horse on Frederick Street in the new town of Hanover, Pennsylvania. It is the town's leading inn until 1792.

   Monticello
5. 1770s

   Paul and Anna Margaret's children are baptized at St. Mary's Lutheran in Silver Run, Maryland, with Caspar and Anna Maria as sponsors.

   Wolfe notes
6. May 1776

   Thomas Jefferson, riding to Congress, pays "Rhenegher" 11 shillings 6 pence for dinner and a night's lodging. He stops again on the way home that September. The editors of his papers say the innkeeper was probably Casper Reinecker.

   Founders Online
7. 1788 to 1792

   Paul's sons John, Peter and Daniel are born. They later spell the name Renicker, Renneker and Reniker.

   Find a Grave
8. July 1791

   Caspar's son Conrad, then running the inn, is credited with serving President Washington breakfast. An older county history places that stop at a different Hanover inn.

   Monticello · Prowell, 1907
9. 1811

   John Renicker marries in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

   Find a Grave
10. 1849

    Eve Renicker, widow of Paul's son George Michael, dies at about 90 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

    Wolfe notes (1850 mortality schedule)
11. 1852

    Paul's sons George Reniker and Adam Renaker die, in Vermillion County, Indiana and Harrison County, Kentucky.

    Find a Grave
12. 1864 to 1878

    John Renicker, Daniel Reniker and Peter Renneker die in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in Goshen Township, Port Washington and Stone Creek.

    Find a Grave
13. 1867 to 1962

    Renickers born in Union Township are buried at Roxford M.E. Cemetery, Tuscarawas County. Their gravestone photos are online.

    Ohio Gravestone Photo Project
14. 1877 to 1963

    Frederick Harrison Renicker lives his whole life in Wabash County, Indiana, near North Manchester.

    Frye and Sager tree

That Caspar and Paul were brothers comes from family research. The 1773 baptism with Caspar as sponsor suggests it but doesn't prove it.

Family lines to follow

Early Renickers with a public record

Records and archives

Each of these mentions the family by name. The most useful come first, and all are free to browse unless noted.

• Jefferson's Memorandum Books, 1776 (Founders Online, National Archives)Jefferson's entries for "Rhenegher's" inn, May 12 and Sept 6, 1776, with an editors' note identifying Casper Reinecker.
• Monticello Encyclopedia: Hanover, PennsylvaniaThe history of Caspar Reinecker's inn, its lots on Frederick Street, and the Washington visit.
• Find a Grave: Paulus RenegerA descendant's write-up of Paul's 13 children, their spellings and burial places.
• Ohio Gravestone Photo Project: Roxford M.E. CemeteryGravestone photos and death-certificate notes for Union Township Renickers, 1867 to 1962.
• SAR Patriot Research System: Caspar ReinackerA lineage application tying Caspar to his daughter's Eichelberger descendants. Free summary.
• Renicker Cemetery records, Lagro Township, IndianaLinks to the Find a Grave listing and the FamilySearch and WorldCat transcriptions.
• Wolfe family genealogy notesChurch, census and will entries from 1773 to 1849, with citations.
• St. Mary's Church, Silver Run: Lutheran records 1784 to 1863 (Maryland German Church Records, vol. 7)Published baptism and communion records for the Maryland branch. Library copy.
• History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio (1884)Township histories for Goshen and Union, where the Ohio Renickers settled.
• History of York County, Pennsylvania (Prowell, 1907)Hanover's early inns and the Washington tradition.
• Pennsylvania State Archives: German ship passenger lists, 1727 to 1808The family's arrival ship should be listed here, but it hasn't been found yet. Copies are ordered by request form.
• Chronicling America (Library of Congress)Digitized newspapers through 1963. Search every spelling above.
• Forebears · GeneanetDistribution, sound-alike names and the dictionary etymology.

Old photographs and images

Pictures connected to the early Renickers: Jefferson's record of a night at their inn, the town where they kept it, and family graves in Ohio and Indiana.

Graves in Ohio and Indiana

The Ohio stones are at Roxford M.E. Cemetery in Union Township, Tuscarawas County, where the Ohio line settled.

Open questions

The biggest gaps are the family's home village in Germany and how the Indiana Renickers connect to the Ohio line.

• Find the immigrant ship and home village in Baden, starting with the Pennsylvania German passenger lists under Reinecker and its variants.
• Confirm from a primary record that Caspar and Paul were brothers.
• Trace the Wabash County, Indiana families back to Ohio or Pennsylvania.
• Map the move west with Ancestry's free surname page (1840, 1880 and 1920 state maps).
• Test with a Y-DNA surname project whether the Renicker, Reniker and Renaker lines share a paternal ancestor.